Dr. Matthew Mehan is originally from Missouri, then Michigan. He resides in Virginia with his lovely wife, Molly, and their passel of children. He has been teaching and designing humanities curricula for twenty years, much of that time at The Heights School, a premier preparatory school for boys. As a former Worsham Teaching Fellow, he continues to be an integral part of the faculty teaching students in the Washington Hillsdale Internship Program (WHIP) for the last five years. We are pleased to announce that Dr. Mehan is now working at Hillsdale in DC full time beginning this summer.
Dr. Mehan is a magna cum laude graduate of the University of Dallas and the valedictorian of his class. He received a B.A. in politics, an M.A. in English, and he earned a Ph.D. in Literature (with honors) for his dissertation on Shakespeare, Thomas More, and the education of leading citizens.
Dr. Mehan has also been instrumental in developing and launching Hillsdale College's new graduate school of government. During the spring semester, in his Political Thought and Culture class, students read, among others, Augustine, Foucault, Hegel, and Thomas More. Dr. Mehan says that More's Utopia offers a case study in how to develop "well and wisely-trained citizens." He also had students read Machiavelli’s Prince alongside Shakespeare’s Hamlet to give students different, but related considerations of statecraft. Dr. Mehan said the graduate school will focus on political philosophy, history, and poetry in order to give students a fuller understanding of the practice of politics.
Dr. Mehan has consulted for national leaders and heads of state. He has written for various outlets both scholarly and popular, including Moreana and The Wall Street Journal. He is also the author of Mr. Mehan’s Mildly Amusing Mythical Mammals, a best-selling illustrated liberal arts book of poems designed to help young and old see and love the world aright. In addition to contributing to the design of the book's artwork, Dr. Mehan also wrote original music to accompany several of the poems. To delve more into this multi-dimensional work visit https://www.mythicalmammals.com/. To purchase a copy go here: https://amzn.to/2yuCF4B.
To hear more about the Van Andel Graduate School of Government, listen to this podcast featuring Dr. Matthew Mehan: https://bit.ly/2VoNoGE.